Tears from accused in Millie Martin case

Published: 8 Oct 2012 18:04

The former couple facing charges linked to the death of baby Millie Martin allowed themselves for the first time today (Monday) to show emotion as their Dungannon Crown Court trial entered its second week.

Rachael Martin and inset Barry McCarney.

Both burst into tears, silently, on different and separate occasions as further evidence unfolded surrounding the 15-month-old girl's death from head injuries after being rushed to the Erne Hospital on December 11, 2009.

Indeed some in the public gallery, including Millie's grandmother, Margaret Graham, were also driven to tears at some aspects of the evidence, while for others it appeared all too much, and they fled the court.

Millie's 27-year-old mother, Rachael, from Main Street, Kesh who denies wilful neglect and allowing her death, first wept as a consultant paediatrician told of how the toddler, described as being "a dancer" at home just the day before, had turned into the limp floppy child she'd found in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital.

Rachael Martin openly wept again, as did her mother, Margaret, sitting just feet behind her in the public gallery, as Dr. Maraid Maginn told how both mother and daughter became distressed on being told Millie was brain dead and would never be revived.

Dr. Maginn said at this point Rachael turned to her mother asking: "How am I going to live without her?"

Earlier her former partner 32-year-old Barry Michael McCarney, from Woodview Crescent, Trillick, who denies murdering Millie, buried his head in his hands as the court was shown a CCTV clip of him running into the Accident and Emergency Department of the Erne Hospital with Millie wrapped in a blanket in his arms.

As the footage, at one point showing the child lying with her mouth gaping open in his arms, was played, McCarney sat in the dock wiping silent tears from his eyes. Others in the public gallery also wept as the silent footage was played out, the only sound to be heard, the whirling of the court's air-conditioning.